Philip Adolphus von Ehrenberg served as Prince-Bishop of Würzburg from 1623 until his death in 1631, and his tenure coincided almost exactly with the most destructive phase of the Thirty Years' War in Franconia. These thalers were struck as Swedish and Imperial armies repeatedly crossed the region, and Würzburg itself fell to Gustav Adolf's forces in October 1631 — months after the last of this issue left the dies. The bishop died that same year, some accounts suggesting the pressures of the occupation hastened it.
Ehrenberg is better remembered today for presiding over one of the largest witch trials in German history, with several hundred executions recorded in the diocese between 1626 and 1630 — the precise years bracketing this coinage.
Philip Adolphus von Ehrenberg served as Prince-Bishop of Würzburg from 1623 until his death in 1631, and his tenure coincided almost exactly with the most destructive phase of the Thirty Years' War in Franconia. These thalers were struck as Swedish and Imperial armies repeatedly crossed the region, and Würzburg itself fell to Gustav Adolf's forces in October 1631 — months after the last of this issue left the dies. The bishop died that same year, some accounts suggesting the pressures of the occupation hastened it.
Ehrenberg is better remembered today for presiding over one of the largest witch trials in German history, with several hundred executions recorded in the diocese between 1626 and 1630 — the precise years bracketing this coinage.